Aw shit you guys, the season’s over! It was all epic conclusions and goodbyes this week, as everything from Kemurikusa to Run with the Wind turned in their final assignments. The strengths or weaknesses of those final episodes were as diverse as the shows themselves; Kemurikusa attempted to switch gears for a genuine action spectacle, The Magnificent Kotobuki decided to hone in on all the things it does best, and Mob Psycho balanced its absurd animation feats with a lengthy and well-deserved epilogue. It’s been a pretty excellent anime season, and though some shows have had their ups and downs, I’m still astonished that both Mob Psycho and Run with the Wind were as consistently terrific as they turned out to be. Let’s run it all down in one last Winter 2019 Week in Review!
Kemurikusa ended in a shower of fireworks this week, as Rin and Wakaba made their final assault on the red root. The results were unsurprisingly somewhat messy, as Kemurikusa’s CG models and animation are only so capable of conveying a compelling action scene. As always, the fundamental directorial choices tended to be pretty smart (there was a great sense of momentum as the camera hung close to Rin for her charge, which is one of the things CG is most convenient for), but the CG models were just too clumsy in their movements to really sell the action on its own merits. Still, it was basically inevitable that actually concluding this story would move Kemurikusa outside of its evocative travelogue/slice of life comfort zone, and the resolution was still perfectly satisfying in narrative terms.
Kemurikusa’s wider dramatic ambitions and more thorough worldbuilding meant it ran into a number of pitfalls that Kemono Friends was able to miss, but on the whole, I’d say this show emphatically demonstrates that Friends wasn’t a fluke, and that Tatsuki is a talent worth keeping an eye on. I look forward to whatever sad, charming, and altogether alluring world he shares with us next!
Run with the Wind ended just as beautifully as I expected, with a final spurt of terrific animation propelling Kakeru and Haiji home. Although we’ve mostly followed Kakeru’s journey throughout this series, this episode largely belonged to Haiji, and that felt very appropriate. Haiji has essentially been the living embodiment of running as a communal activity – his injury meant he would never stand a chance of competing alone, so he was forced to find other ways to embrace his love of running. His final charge thus became a validation of everything Run with the Wind has emphasized all along, as he thought on all that happened, and could only conclude that he was incredibly blessed.
As usual, Run with the Wind’s uniquely sharp writing really helped to bring this resolution home, with thoughts like “whether I run or not, it hurts just the same. Even if I fail, I want to do what my heart desires here” echoing common enough sports anime sentiments, but with a lyricism to them that made them feel personal all the same. And the production’s realization of those sentiments was as strong as ever, from the horrific creaking hinge of Haiji’s injury to the subtle tensing of his father’s hand around the stopwatch. This was a perfect resolution to one of the best sports anime in years, and a heartrending testament to what this genre can do. Thank you for everything, Run with the Wind.
Meanwhile, The Magnificent Kotobuki resolved in an absurd aerial battle that may not have satisfyingly concluded all of this show’s threads, but at the very least offered a resounding example of what it does best. The battle over Isao’s capital city was likely the single most thrilling fight of this whole series, and made me wish we’d gotten more more episodes in an urban context. As with last week’s episode, Mizushima’s ability to distill hectic conflict into key exchanges meant a theoretically messy scramble was defined by a series of clear sub-conflicts, from the initial city approach and resolution of team differences, to their specific engagements with “bosses” like the remote-detonating missile launcher and Isao himself. I didn’t feel this episode really resolved the portals-to-Japan conceit in any sort of satisfying way, but it was a wonderful spectacle in its own right, and did a fine job of sending off each Kotobuki member in style. The Magnificent Kotobuki was never a truly great show, but it was always a fun time, and I’d be happy to see a sequel.
Right after I started doomsaying about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure having entered a lull, we got another terrific episode this week. There still wasn’t that much fluid animation, but the storyboarding and color work this time were excellent, and most importantly, the fight being illustrated was just really well-designed. Notorious B.I.G. turned out to be a classic puzzle Stand, where the trick came not in overpowering it or outwitting it, but discovering the limitations of its narrow but extremely dangerous powers. This episode combined that puzzle-solving appeal with more effective cribbing from classic horror media; the meaty hand-creature scuttling around the plane felt like a scene right out of The Thing, while the final Trish-focused segment banked on the appeal of classic Twilight Zone scenario Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. The sequence of the Stand banging against every window in an attempt to reach Trish was horror JoJo at its finest, and demonstrated that as with Yoshikage Kira and his family, JoJo is often much stronger for focusing on characters without absurd powers. I’m very ready to see Trish join the active party!
And finally, Mob Psycho 100 concluded with all the fireworks you might hope, along with welcome epilogues for basically every single major character. There’s not much more for me to say about Mob’s final battle with Suzuki; it was every bit the absurd animated spectacle you’d expect, and though I don’t think it could really compare to either the Mogami or teleporter fights, it was still an animation feat far beyond what you could ever expect for television animation. I’m still working to settle my thoughts on Suzuki’s apparent redemption, but as with Mogami, I think I can accept the show’s apparent “try to reach out to everyone, but some people simply cannot be given true power, or they will use it for terrible ends.”
Mob as a whole is largely about the importance of finding a support structure, and how we can only be our best selves if we’re together with people we trust, but “some people simply cannot be mixed with power” feels like a necessary addendum to that theme. Given that, I appreciated that Suzuki only expressed slight and personally-aimed regrets, not some kind of wholesale transformation. Mob personally believes everyone is capable of redemption, and that’s a big part of his strength – but trusting everyone with power is a very different thing, and so I was happy to at least see Mob’s associates doing their best to minimize the harm Suzuki could cause.
It’s a difficult compromise to strike, but I think Mob managed it without sacrificing any of its clear, profound humanism. Perhaps the most crucial element of this whole compromise was how uncomfortable it all was – after that brief moment of Mob actually surrendering to the delirium, the subsequent violence was all ugly, brutal stuff. Using his power to exert his will on others is the most painful thing for Mob, and the animation did a wonderful job of demonstrating how ugly violence truly is.
As for the epilogue, this episode offered a perfectly cohesive conclusion that still left the door open for future adventures, rewarding our investment in all of this series’ quirky and compelling heroes. This season of Mob has been a stunning achievement from start to finish, and instantly, undoubtedly ranks among the most aesthetically impressive TV productions of all time. Way to go, Mob.
